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THE 

RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

OF THE 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 

By Robert Perkins Brown 



WILLIAM ELLERY 

By Henry Robinson Palmer 




PROVIDENCE 

19 13 
Published by the Rhode Island Society 
of the Sons of the American Revolution 






•u 




STEPHEN HOPKINS 

From the Tninibull picture of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, now in the 

possession of Yale University 



FOREWORD 

This brochure is presented by the Rhode Island 
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution as a 
token of its deep gratitude to Stephen Hopkins and 
William Ellery, the Rhode Island signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. We seek to perpetuate 
their memory, not because they won the laurel chaplet 
on the fields of battle, but because for twenty years 
before the first gun was fired in the Revolution they 
fought the fight for the rights and liberties of the 
American colonies, and with others of like lojalty and 
power brought these colonies together into a close 
union, prepared by the fire and blood of armed 
conflict to be welded into a nation. 

Our organization is not established for self-aggrand- 
izement. We are members not in order to set our- 
selves apart as a peculiar class of noble ancestry, but 
to fix in the minds of future generations the deeds and 
memory of those who contributed to the success of the 
American Revolution. In honoring them we shall 
breed a higher sense of honor in ourselves. In con- 
templating their labors we shall feel impelled to con- 
tinue their efforts toward building a righteous nation- 
ality and shall consecrate ourselves anew to liberty and 
freedom and popular government among the peoples 
scattered over the face of the earth. 

R. P. B. 



Stephen Ibopfeins 

1707*1785 



In the effort to produce a pen picture of one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence it seems 
quite considerate to avoid the use of superlatives and 
also to restrain that overweening local pride that mag- 
nifies the importance of its hero so that other men ap- 
pear insignificant in comparison with him, yet all 
men who are intimately acquainted with the incipi- 
ency, growth and consummation of a national spirit 
which developed and endowed with wisdom the institu- 
tions of our great republic must regard Stephen Hop- 
kins as one of its founders. As one of Rhode Island's 
representatives he attended the meeting at Albany in 
1754 and assisted Benjamin Franklin in framing his 
plan of union which failed to find favor since the 
union was to be a creation of the English Parlia- 
ment, who were to appoint the President General. 
It was a resolution of the Providence Town 
Council, passed May 17, 1774, and addressed 
to the Rhode Island Legislature which called for 
an organized body of representatives for the col- 





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STEPHEN HOPKINS 



onies to establish "the firmest union" and to take effect- 
ive steps to that end. On the 15th of June the Leg- 
islature passed resolutions urging a regular convention 
of representatives from all the colonies to form a firm 
and inviolable union, to obtain redress for grievances, 
and moreover to establish the rights and liberties of 
the colonies. Stephen Hopkins was a member of the 
Legislature and the leading citizen of the town, and 
had for twenty years been urging with his voice and 
pen this inviolable union which alone could protect the 
individual colonies and forge them into a nation. On 
the day of the passage of these resolutions the 
Legislature appointed Stephen Hopkins and Sam- 
uel Ward as their representatives at such a Con- 
gress, Thus Rhode Island was the first of the colonies 
to call together the first Continental Congress of 1774, 
which was the beginning of a series never since broken ; 
and she was the first to elect delegates to the same. 
To Stephen Hopkins must be attributed the resolu- 
tion and the call. To him also must be allowed in 
large measure the convictions which were stamped and 
left on the minds of the members of this Congress 
when it adjourned. He was sixty-seven years of age, 
when conflict is no longer alluring, yet he told the 
members of this Congress that "powder and ball will 
decide this question. The gun and bayonet alone will 
finish the contest in which we are engaged, and any of 
you who cannot bring your minds to this mode of ad- 
justing the question had better retire in time." Three 
weeks before the time that the next Congress met his 
prophecy was fulfilled, on the 19th of April, 1775, at 
Lexington. Paul Revere was present and listened to 
Mr. Hopkins's speech in Congress and Mr. William 
E. Foster, the accomplished author of the Historical 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

Tract on Stephen Hopkins, says it would be interest- 
ing to know whether Hopkins's words were ringing in 
the ears of Revere as he spurred his horse on his mid- 
night ride to Lexington. 

As a member of the Rhode Island committee of cor- 
respondence, Stephen Hopkins had long since become 
well and favorably known to the leading patriots of 
the other colonies, and when he met them at the first 
Continental Congress he measured fully up to them in 
ability, force and ringing patriotism, and was recog- 
nized as one of the foremost of that . immortal assem- 
blage. In the second Congress Mr. Hopkins was on 
the committee to report a plan for furnishing the col- 
onies with a naval armament and his brother Ezek 
Hopkins became the first Commodore in the Ameri- 
can navy. He also was foremost in establishing a 
national postal sA'stem as designed by William God- 
dard of Providence, and Benjamin Franklin was at 
once appointed Postmaster General of the colonies. 

Mr. Hopkins was twice elected as a delegate to Con- 
gress and was later offered the position again three times, 
but declined. His pamphlets, correspondence and later 
his personal contact with the foremost patriots of 
the colonies in Congress brought to him a very close 
relation with such men as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel 
Adams, James Otis and man}' others whose watchword 
was "Liberty or death." This was the national as- 
pect of his life and labors, but the supreme test of a 
man's qualities must be made in his home surround- 
ings, in his native state and city. 

Mr. Hopkins was born at Providence March 7, 1707, 
and died July 13, 1785. His father was William Hop- 
kins and his mother was Ruth, daughter of Samuel 
Wilkinson, and through these parents he was related 




TABLET ON THE STEPHEN HOPKINS HOUSE 
Hopkins Street, Providence 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 



to those numerically and otherwise great tribes of 
Rhode Island freeholders, the Whipples, the Arnolds 
the Wilkinsons, the Hopkinses, the Smiths, and the 
Wickendens. At nineteen years of age he married 
Sarah Scott, great granddaughter of Richard Scott, 
who was one of the earliest members of the Society of 
Friends in Rhode Island. Some years after her 
death in May, 1755, he married Mrs. Anne Smith, 
and although his mother was a Quaker, now for the 
first time he connected himself formally with the So- 
ciety of Friends and became an intimate associate of 
Moses Brown and the other leaders of that faith. Mr, 
Hopkins had two daughters, Ruth, who died in early 
life, and Lydia, who married Captain Daniel Tilling- 
hast of Newport ; also five sons, Rufus, John, Silva- 
nus, Simon and George. Rufus went to sea, but later 
settled down to civil life, became a judge and was the 
only one to perpetuate the name of Hopkins. John 
followed the sea and died of smallpox at San Andre. 
Silvanus went to sea and was murdered by savages on 
the coast of the Island of St. Pierre. Simon died in his 
eighth year. George married, in 17T3, Ruth Smith, his 
father's stepdaughter. He was captain of a vessel 
which left Charleston, S. C, August 25, 1775, and 
was never heard from. Such is the tragic record of a 
seafaring New England family. 

Stephen Hopkins was a farmer's boy. Taken to Scit- 
uate in early life, he followed farming until, in 1742, 
he returned to Providence to live. He was also a 
surveyor, as his ancestors on both sides had been. In 
1731 he was elected moderator of the Scituate town 
meeting and began a life of public service which con- 
tinued over 50 years. It was indeed public service, 
devoted to the welfare of his fellow citizens unselfishly, 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

with tact, energy and care of the smallest detail. All 
positions seemed to have been thrust upon him and 
his name appears at the head of nearly all of the com- 
mittees for public purposes, from the laying out of 
streets to arguing with the British Parliament. 
Sometimes he held a multiplicit}' of oiflices, as when he 
was a member of the First Continental Congress he 
was also a member of the Rhode Island Legislature 
and Chief Justice of the Superior Court. He was 
Chief Justice when in 1772 the British schooner Gas- 
pee was burned by a party from Providence, and when 
the British Government appointed a commission to ap- 
prehend the guilt}' ones and send them to England for 
trial he cut the wings of the commissioners by 
the announcement that he would, as he said, 
"neither apprehend by my own order, nor suffer 
any executive officer in the colony to do it, tor 
the purpose of transportation to England for trial." 
He was elected Governor of Rhode Island nine times 
(and served also, making a total of ten times, 
to fill the unexpired term of Governor Greene) 
between 1755 and 1768, when he withdrew for the 
sake of peace in the colony. For thirteen years he 
and Samuel Ward engaged in a most acrimonious and 
mercenary contest for the governorship. It is hard to 
detect any principle involved in their rivalry but ap- 
parently it was a sectional quarrel between rich and 
aristocratic Newport and the farmers and mechanics in 
the northern part of the state, Newport wishing to 
retain her position as capital of the state and ei'go de- 
manding a Newport Governor. That there was no 
lasting personal antipathy appears from the fact that 
Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins worked shoulder to 
shoulder in the Revolutionary cause and both went as 







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INSCRIPTION ON THE HOPKINS MONUMENT 
North Burying Ground. Providence 



o 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 



delegates to the First Continental Congress. Had Mr. 
Ward lived he would doubtless have been Mr. Hop- 
kins's co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
When Mr. Hopkins came to Piovidence he engaged in 
commerce, and it is said that his vessels visited ports 
all over the world. It was in this period that Provi- 
dence became a great commercial port, finally surpass- 
ing Newport. 

While Stephen Hopkins owned tracts of land in 
Scituate and was largely interested in shipping and 
also in an iron foundry where cannon were cast and 
implements of iron were made, yet he apparently 
never collected a large fortune. His public activities 
took too much of his time and energy to allow him to 
obtain more than a competency for himself. When 
he came to Providence in 1742 he built a small dwell- 
ing no better than any ordinary farmhouse, on the 
Town street, at the corner of Bank lane. This house 
was later moved up the lane near the original lo- 
cation of the Providence Bank, for which the lane was 
named, and the lane was afterwards re-named Hopkins 
street. The house is still standing. A side-light is 
thrown on the simple mode of life of Mr. Hopkins by 
the legend which has come down to us that when 
Washington in 1776 arrived at Providence, on his 
way from Cambridge to Long Island, the citizens of 
Providence decided he must stop with Stephen Hop- 
kins, but Mr. Hopkins was away attending Congress ; 
however, Ruth Hopkins, his daughter-in-law, said she 
would take care of him, and when the wealthier peo- 
ple began offering her fine china, glass and silverware 
with which to entertain the General more sumptuously, 
she rejected all proffers with the rather curt remark 
that what was good enough for Stephen Hopkins was 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

surely good enough for General Washington. 

Stephen Hopkins was a genuine Rhode Islander 
with a heritage of all that was best in the state. His 
great grandfather, Thomas Hopkins, probably came to 
Providence in 1 636. In 1 638 he received, in the assign- 
ment of the 54 lots, one near the present Williams 
street. His great grandfather on his mother's side was 
Rev. William Wickenden, a pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, who also received, in the assignment, a tract 
near Power street. While there were no schools within 
the reach of Stephen Hopkins, yet his cultured mother 
cared for his primary education and his maternal 
grandfather, Samuel Wilkinson, and his uncle in- 
structed him in mathematics, for which he had a de- 
cided aptitude. Thus he became an expert surveyor 
and was much employed in establishing private and 
public boundaries, which gave him a wide acquaint- 
ance through the State. His scientific attainments 
were utilized in the observations of the transit of Ve- 
nus which were made in Providence in 1769 and in 
which he took an active part. Two streets running 
off the Town street were named in honor of this event, 
Transit street and Planet street. 

But his active mind did not stop at science and its 
application. Books were exceedingh' rare, but his 
mother's father, Samuel Wilkinson, had married 
Plain Wickenden, daughter of the parson, and had 
acquired a small library of choice books which Ste- 
phen Hopkins eagerly read — doubtless Shakespeare, 
Milton, Spenser, Bunyan and Addison. His oppor- 
tunities were meagre but his desire for learning 
was unbounded and by his habits of close application 
to reading and study he made himself an educated 
man. Naturally he sought to give opportunity to 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 



others and was urgent for the establishment of schools. 
He was active in the founding of Brown University, 
then Rhode Island College, and was its first chancel- 
lor, holding that ofKce as long as he lived. He with 
some of his friends contributed the funds to send to 
England and obtain the books for a public library, 
which was eventualh' merged in the Providence Ath- 
enaeum. His public activities were so varied and his 
public duties so scrupulously executed that he hardly 
appears to have had any private life. He was a man 
of large mind and knew how to control men. In a 
State whose first settlers were people of the most heter- 
ogeneous modes of thought and where individualism to 
this day has been instinctive and inextinguishable, 
Stephen Hopkins's tact and sagacity united the peo- 
ple in projects of improvement and made him ever 
the controller of all issues. This genial, entertaining 
Quaker, attractive alike to young and old, became the 
first citizen of Rhode Island through his magnanimity, 
his devotion to duty and country, and his mild sway 
over the hearts of men. It has been stated that the two 
great Rhode Islanders of the Revolutionary period were 
Stephen Hopkins in civil life and Nathanael Greene in 
military life. The State of Rhode Island is proud to 
have him as one of her representatives in the group of 
immortal patriots who dared to sign the Declaration 
of Independence. When Trumbull painted his pic- 
ture of the signers of the Declaration he found that 
no portrait of any sort existed of Stephen Hopkins. 
He accordingly painted in the features of Mr. Hop- 
kins's eldest son Rufus, who is said to have closely 
resembled him, and we nmst be satisfied wdth an 
approach to verity. 

Robert Perkins Brown 



MilUani Eller^ 

1727*1820 



William Ellery of Newport, signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, was the second son of 
William Ellery of Bristol. It is believed that the first 
Ellery who settled in New England arrived on this side of 
the Atlantic shortly after the middle of the seventeenth 
century; and towards the end of that century one 
branch of the family was established at Bristol, where 
William Ellery the elder was born October 31, 1701. 
The elder Ellery was graduated at Harvard College 
in 1722 and became a well-to-do merchant of Newport. 
He served as Judge, Assistant and Deputy Governor, 
and appears to have been sincerely devoted to the 
causes of religion and patriotism. He died March 15, 
1764, and was survived by several children. 

William Ellery the younger, the signer of the 
Declaration, was born at Newport, December 22, 
1727, and, together with his elder brother, was sent 
to Harvard for his collegiate education. The date of 
his matriculation there is supposed to be 1743. Evi- 




WILLIAM ELLERY 



WILLIAM ELLERY 



dently he enjoyed to the full the oppoi'tunities afforded 
him for brisk and genial college companionship. One 
of his biographers tells us that ' 'little is known of his 
college life besides the frolics and jests in which he 
had his full share, and which he used to relate in a 
most diverting style." But it was by no means 
all play and no work at Cambridge, for he acquired 
there a substantial knowledge of classic authors which 
stood him in good stead his entire life and, indeed, 
furnished him to the end of his days with one of his 
chief recreations. He was always a great reader, 
both in Latin and in his own tongue. In his eighty- 
fourth year he wrote: "As to employment of time, I 
have experienced such instruction and delight in read- 
ing, and investigating truth, that I mean, as long as 
my mind is capable of bearing it, to keep it in exer- 
cise and doze as little as possible. Blessed be the man 
who invented printing. For this important art I am 
thankful to that glorious Being from Whom all our 
blessings flow." And as we shall see, on the day of 
his death, almost at the moment of dissolution, he sat 
upright in bed to read a cherished volume of Cicero. 

He received the degree of bachelor of arts from Har- 
vard in 1747. His continued interest in the college 
is indicated by the fact that he made a yearly pilgrim- 
age to Cambridge until he was eighty years of age — 
though it should be added that his interest in the 
town was not wholly academic. Prof. Edward T. 
Channing, one of his grandsons, tells us that 
"he was received into the excellent society of 
the place, where he became attached to the lady 
whom he afterwards married, and intimate with 
the family of Judge Trowbridge, her near connexion. 
The scenes of his early studies and first affection be- 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

came dearer to him with his years, whether as the wit- 
nesses of his blessings or afflictions. ' ' A characteristic 
incident bearing on his college friendships is recalled. 
Nearly a quarter of a century after he left Harvard he 
wrote to his former room-mate, Andrew Oliver of Sa- 
lem : "I have already about fifty subscribers to the 
proposals you sent me for the publication of your 
Essay on Comets, and hope to procure more. It 
would give me great pleasure to encourage genius in 
any gentleman ; especially in a gentleman with whom 
I once had the happiness to be intimately connected," 
How many of us in these hurried days of the twentieth 
century would personally solicit fifty of our acquaint- 
ances to purchase an abtruse pamphlet produced by 
a boyhood friend? One discovers, however, in study- 
ing the life of William Ellery that he had a large ca- 
pacity for disinterested service. 

Upon graduating from Harvard, Mr. Ellery made 
his home in Newport, where in a short time he 
brought his wife, who had been Ann Remington 
of Cambridge, daughter of Mr. Justice Remington of 
the Superior Court, and a descendant of Governors 
Dudley and Bradstreet. Mr. Channing has an interest- 
ing domestic story that is worth recalling for the in- 
sight it gives into Ellery 's character. There was a con- 
genial crowd of young fellows at Newport who spent 
their evenings cheerfully together instead of at home. 
Among them was the young college graduate, whose 
faithful wife, after the custom of the times, was wont 
to inscribe on the margin or blank lea^'es of the fam- 
ily almanac whatever events she considered noteworthy 
and memorable. One day, says his grandson, she 
"had recorded, as its most precious event, and with 
expressions of tenderness and gratitude, that her hus- 




WILLIAM ELLERY-S TRUNK 




THE GRAVE OF WILLIAM ELLERY 



WILLIAM ELLERY 



band had passed the evening with her and her chil- 
dren. " This pathetic entry fell under the husband's 
eye. He made no comment, but on "the same even- 
ing he returned to his usual haunt, and at once an- 
nounced to his friends that he had come to take his 
parting cup with them, and that, hereafter, he should 
seek his evening pleasure at home. Some disbelieved, 
others scoffed ; — could this be true of a man of his 
gayety and spirit? But their surprise and boister- 
ous ridicule he was prepared for, and, true to his pur- 
pose and word, he left them, and was ever after a 
thoroughly domestic man." Mrs. Ellery died at 
Cambridge September seventh, 1764, at the early age 
of thirty-nine; and fifty years later he said,. "You 
read, in the graveyard in Cambridge, the epitaph of 
your grandmother, a woman dear to me and to all 
who were acquainted with her. Alas ! I was too early 
deprived of her society." 

For a number of years Mr. Ellery was a merchant 
at Newport, and during a part of this time he served 
as naval officer of the colony. He was fond of gar- 
dening, which became a favorite occupation and di- 
version at a later period of his life. When he was 
past eighty he wrote, "I was among the first who fol- 
lowed the example that was set before us by some Eu- 
I'opean gardeners who were imported into the town 
when I was a young married man ; and, in consequence 
of our rival exertions, ten times as great a quantity 
of vegetables was raised upon the same quantity of 
ground annually as had ever been raised before." 

Three years after the death of his wife Mr. Ellery 
married a second time ; and three years later still, in 
1770, he began the practice of law, having previously 
served as clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. He 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

secured considerable professional business, including 
cases from a number of the other colonies. 

During the British activities in and near New- 
port Mr. Ellery's house was burned in 
revenge for the share he took in the Colonial cause. 
The house in which he spent the latter portion 
of his life was a three-story structure of wood in 
the Colonial style, surmounted by a railing. It was 
purchased, April 23, 1799, from Asher and Mary 
Robbins, and remained in the Ellery family until 
March, 1905, when it was sold to Henry Clay An- 
thony, State senator from Portsmouth. Shortly af- 
terward, in 1906, it was torn down. 

This dignified Newport residence had a great 
kitchen with a large fireplace and oven. The dining 
room was wainscotted in hand-carved panels and con- 
tained a fireplace with a hand-carved mantelpiece, 
which boasted a Grecian border and fluted columns. 
The room also had inside shutters, corner posts and 
brass door knobs. The parlor, at the left of the front 
entrance, was similar to the dining room, but without 
wainscotting. Back of the parlor was Mr. Ellery's 
private room with a tiled fireplace and inside shutters. 
Here most of his extensive writing and reading were 
done. His bed room, in which he died, was directly 
over the parlor. In the rear of the house was a large 
garden with fruit trees of various sorts. It was in 
this old mansion that the Ellery Chapter of the Sons 
and Daughters of the Revolution of Newport was or- 
ganized. 

His mother was Elizabeth Almy. He had two 
brothers, Christopher and Benjamin, and one sister, 
Ann, who married Rev, John Burt of Bristol. He 
himself was the father of five children — Edward Trow- 




WILLIAM ELLEKVS HOUSE AT NEWPORT 



WILLIAM ELLERY 



bridge, Elizabeth (^Mrs. Francis Dana), Lucy (Mrs. 
William Channing, the mother of William Ellery 
Channing), Almy (Mrs. William Stedman of Boston), 
and William Ellery, Junior, in whose house, at the 
corner of Clarke and Truro streets, the First Unitarian 
Church of Newport was organized. 

Mr. Ellery's second wife, to whom he was married 
June 28, 1767, was Abigail Cary of Bristol, daughter 
of Colonel Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Wanton) Cary. 
She died July 27, 1793, aged 51. 

A story is told that illustrates his mild but effective 
methods of domestic discipline. One of his sons, on 
starting for school one day, left the door open, where- 
upon the father sent his colored servant, Arthur 
Flagg, to summon the boy home. "Father, did you 
want me.?" asked the boy when he returned. "Yes, 
my son," was the reply, "shut the door." 

Unfortunately Mr. Ellery late in life requested his 
friends to preserve none of his correspondence. There 
remain, however, certain letter books and five diaries 
minutely detailing his journeys in three succeesive 
years to and from Congress. His credentials to that 
body as a delegate from Rhode Island are dated 
May 4, 1776, the exact day upon which the colony 
proclaimed its independence of Great Britain, fore- 
stalling the national Declaration b}^ two months. He 
took his seat on the fourteenth of Ma}^ and on the 
fourth of Jul}" affixed his name to the immortal in- 
strument at Philadelphia. His habits of observation 
and philosophy are suggested by the fact that he 
stood by the side of the Secretary, Charles Thomson, 
during the proceedings, and noted the expression 
and manner of each member as he approached to 
place his name upon the roll. His grandson says that he 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

was accustomed to describe the scene with great spirit. 

During his term in Congress, of which he was a 
member from 1776 to 1786, except in 1780 and 1782, 
he was appointed to some of the most important com- 
mittees and took a frequent and influential part in 
debate. Shortly after his first election he was placed 
on the marine committee, as might have been ex- 
pected, considering the maritime prominence of New- 
port at this period. In 1779 he was chosen to the 
newh* constituted Board of Admiralty, with full over- 
sight of the naval and marine affairs of the nation. It 
consisted of but three commissioners from outside 
Congress and two from that body. So efficient was 
his service on this board that when he was temporarily 
retired from Congress in 1780 he was chosen one of 
the three other commissioners. In 1776 he was a 
member of the comniittees on the Treasury, for estab- 
lishing expresses, for providing relief for the wounded 
and disabled and for purchasing necessaries for the 
army. In 1779 he served on the committee on for- 
eign relations and in 1782 on the committee on pub- 
lic accounts. In 1785 "he advocated with great zeal, 
forensic eloquence and powerful logic the resolution of 
Mr. King for abolishing slavery in the United 
States." Congress in 1786 made him Commissioner 
of the Continental Loan Office for Rhode Island, and 
shortly afterwards he was chosen Chief Justice of 
Rhode Island, as Stephen Hopkins, his co-signer of 
the Declaration, had been chosen before him. In 
1790 President Washington appointed him Collector 
of Customs at Newport, and that office he held for 
thirty years, until the day of his death. 

His diaries, heretofore referred to, are full of the 
agreeable quality of the man. He was a keen student 




HOPKINS MONUMENT 
North Burying Ground, Providence 




ELLERY BURIAL PLAT. NEWPORT 

William Ellerj's tomb is in the background with a horizontal stone 



WILLIAM ELLERY 



of his fellows, the possessor of a natural cheerfulness 
and wit that could sharpen into irony upon occasion. 
In Congress he was wont to be called upon in debate 
when the exigency demanded the exercise of this deli- 
cate talent. At Kingston on his waj' to the Capital 
in 1777 he notes the capitulation of Burgoyne: 

"This Day had a Confirmation of the glorious News of the 
Surrendry of the Col. of the Queens Light Dragoons with his 
whole army. Learn hence proud Mortals the ignominious end 
of the vain boaster." 

A half day's journey farther west he records : 

"After dinner rode to Tyler's which is now a private house op- 
posite to the Revd. Hart's Meeting House, drank a Dish of 

Coffee in the Evening and were waited upon by a good female 
Body, who was almost consumed with the Hysterics of Religion 
— VIDE Dr. Lardner's Credulity of the Gospel History." 

At Hartford he attended church : 

"In the afternoon heard Mr. Strong preach a good sermon, 
and most melodious Singing. The Psalmody was performed in 
all its parts, and Softness more than Loudness seemed to be the 
Aim of the Performers. In the evening waited upon Gov. 
Trumbull and was pleased to find so much Quickness of appre- 
hension in so old a Gentleman." 

At Litchfield he was entertained by General Wol- 

cott: 

"He had lately returned from the Northern Army, where he 
commanded a Number (300 I think) of Volunteers, which he had 
collected by his Influence. He gave us an account of the Sur- 
rendry of the menacing Meteor, which after a most portentous 
Glare had evaporated into Smoke." 

Detained on a later journey by a storm that had 

been brewing for a fortnight but amounted to little 

when it came, he is reminded of a story of the 

Rev. Dr. Phillips of Long Island : 

"This Mr. Phillips had been preaching in I know not and care 
not what Parish, and being much fatigued the Gent, with whom 
he dined, to refresh his spirits before dinner, presented him 
with a dram in a very small glass, observing at the same time 



THE RHODE ISLAND SIGNERS 

that the dram was 10 years old. The arch priest wittily pro- 
fessed that it was the least of its age that he had ever seen in 
his life." 

In the same entry we find a sprightly dissertation 

on laughter. He declares that Mrs, Emmons, his 

landlady, "is one of the most laughing creatures that 

I ever saw. She begins and ends everything she says, 

and she talks as much as most females, with a laugh 

which is in truth the silliest laugh that ever I heard." 

"He will not find fault with laughter however, though 

Solomon and Chesterfield have inveighed against it. 

He quotes Horace: Ride si sapis\^^ and he concludes: 

"The Spectator hath divided laughter into several species some 
of which he censures roundly; but doth not as I remember con- 
demn seasonable, gentle laughter. — Therefore my pleasant Land- 
lady, laugh on." 

On the fifteenth of February, 1820, Mr. Ellery rose 
as usual at his home in Newport and seated himself 
in the armless flag-bottom chair which he had used for 
half a century. He began to read Tulley's Offices in 
the original, using no glasses, though the print was 
small. To his physician, who had happened in and 
found him looking thin and pale, he said: "I am 
going off the stage of life, and it is a great blessing 
that I go free from sickness, pain and sorrow." As 
his weakncjss increased, he was assisted by his daugh- 
ter to his bed, where he sat upright and began to read 
Cicero de Officiis. A few moments later, without a 
struggle or other visible sign, he passed away as if 
entering on a peaceful sleep, his posture erect and the 
book still clasped in his hand. 

So at the age of ninety-two he died as calmly and 
cheerfully as he had lived — scholar, philosopher, pa- 
triot and friend. 

Henry Robinson Palmer 



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